Emptybottle.org

Given the peremptory perception of a post and the false sense of importance behind an entry, people are loath to actually express what is on their minds. Popular weblogs are disinclined to state anything about politics or war other than the neocon hard line, something else that can be filed under the rubric of "oblique" commentary. And thanks to the extension of our cult of personality to weblogging with terms like "A-list," referrals, the intricate brownnosing and insularity seen at events like SXSW and Fray, it has now expanded to a level that sometimes negates the socializing and collective innovation that these events are supposed to be about. The Leo Buscalgia-like need to be liked, linked, or befriended, to be noticed as if the whole personal writing gambit or sense of weblog being was some spineless, drug-free answer to Studio 54 and the strange Bush-NATO idea that "an attack on a person's writing is an attack on a person" (tell that to a libel expert and he'll laugh you out of his office), causes people to pull punches or take things far too seriously. And it corrupts honest expression.